EPISODE 566 “TO SIR, WITH LOVE!” JOHN RICKER TURNS 99 YEARS OLD
alan skeoch
April 19, 2022
John Ricker, teacher (and other things that do not really matter as much)
Impact on one young teacher
Teachable moments do occur, and this is one of them.
(THIS note was intended as a birthday card to John Ricker, my teacher, but now seems
it should be a bit bigger than that. So it is now EPISODE 566, very personal kind of Episode.)
Hi Marvi and John
Of course Marjorie and I want to wish John a Happy Birthday…99 years…the Castelfield
Institute has been a wonderful way of maintaining contact with you
John.
I am so glad you forgot to send my bill for all those bottles of beer
and sandwiches. Do not send bill now…too deep in the past.
I remember my grandmother and grandfather celebrating their 95th
and grandma said to me: “Alan, it seems like only yesterday.”
She was referring to her lifespan…this motivated me to try and put
that lifespan together so others could share in her life history. The research
sure surprised me and I am still digging. i.e. Was the rather infamous
Dr. Price, a Welshman who impregnated many women including my
great Grandmother,…was he really that Dr. Price?
Family lore said Dr. Price was a man who evaded responsibility. By
digging I discovered that was not the case. He disbelieved in marriage
but paid for my grandmother to attend a very fancy ladies college
in Kington…she emerged as a ‘lady’ which meant my grandfather was
expected to tip his hat to her. I am not sure he did that.
Why tell you this? Because “only yesterday” applies so well to you
and the richness of your past. I can only imagine your pacifist father’s
shock when he discovered you had volunteered for the air force.
And I know much about the horror you faced in bomber command.;;
and can feel the loss you felt when so many friends did not return.
But also you resolved to get on with life and make a career of teaching
young people….kept life upbeat, meaningful and very very humourous no
matter how serious the matter under discussion.
Only yesterday! Lots of good times, John, especially the impact you
had on me as a very naive potential teacher. Your ‘antics’ at the
front of the room were worth replicating with warmth and gusto.
Always a serious thread of solid history giving your lessons real meaning.
I remember one odd lesson on “doing projects” where your students
at Parkdale made historical objects like siege weapons of ancient
times. My students did the same only went one better. The girls
made dresses … i.e. Marie Antoinette’s dress…and wore them
to class. One dress I kept to show other students and then returned
it to her 30 years later. “Sir, I swiped the dress material from a yard
goods store in Parkdale.” How could she do that? Under her own
dress? I should have asked.
One of the things that makes me really good about the career path
you sent me on at Parkdale is the continuing contact I have with
some of the ex-students. Two of them, Jeanette Chau and Julia (Walkely) Sherman.
even nominated me for
some ‘writer of the year’ award in Mississauga. Imagine that?
After retiring in 1999…being still remembered. Like you I am out to pasture and enjoying the
rich red clover that the bees enjoy. To be remembered is Sweet all the same.
I wager you feel good about being remembered by so many
people you have taught. Know you do because I have heard you mention
them.
What was I doing at the OCE winter program when most of my
friends had taken the speed up summer program? I thought
the longer course would be better. And to do so I turned down
many job offers from Humberside and others. If I was to be a
teacher I wanted the best grounding possible. And got it.
Partway through the winter course you sent me to Brockville for
a paid job for two weeks. What a rare privilege. Accomodation was arranged
with an Irish family that wanted me to play checkers with them
each evening. How could I prepare lessons? Only after they went to bed.
But Must do the lessons. Not hired as a babysitter. Those kids expected some big questions. Some
of my best lessons began the way you began often. “Can you help me.” “I do not for
the life of me understand why Riel was executed by John A.. Macdonald?”
(long long pause) ” Can anyone help me?”
Homework! A thorny isaue. Too much homework can destroy the
impact of the big questions. Maybe best to ignore homework. Most boys
would not do homework anyway. Some could not read. Some could
not understand abstractions anyway. Some did not give a damn.
But all were capable of being motivated.
I remember another teacher who you must have known. Evan Cruickshank
was my teacher at Humberside then moved to Parkdale. You two had
similarities in that you could motivate students with big questions. “Crooky”
once said in class in answer to a student question…”I don’t know.”
That night I went to the library ro help him out and told him privatley the next day
the info he needed. He thanked me. Later I realized it was a teaching method.
He could trigger kids to do things they rarely did…like doing research in
a library…alone.
Difficult students were a challenge. I loved trying to turn them around.
Like the kids that told me to ‘Fuck Off!” They were the best to turn
around and the easiest. You told me I would meet these kids.
If a kid reached the stage of frustration that
he or she was ready to use that expletive then the student was ready
for a teachable moment. Lots of unhappy kids at Parkdale. Kids
that needed help without fawning. “Alan, if you take the job at Parkdale,
you will never leave.” You were so right, John. And what an honour to
be a teacher in the school where you were once a student and became
a teacher after the horrors of World War II. It was a trust bestowed.
Then there was Simon Cotter. President of the student council who
had a skill that bothered some teachers. He was a leader and became
our pseudo principal which was hard for some teachers to accept. I
think you would have loved him…just rebellious enough to be loved.
“Sir can you help me out…bit of a jam….organized a school trip to Hawaii
on March break. Travel company assumed there was a teacher chaperone.
Danger it will be cancelled. Lots of the kids saved all summer for this trip
and they could lose their money. Could you come along?” “As long
as I can pay for Marjorie and our boys.” What an adventure that
turned into. Simon ran the show. Our kids were young and disappeared in
the arms of the tripsters much of the time. Sort of a role reversal with a good dash of respect.
Allowed us to really get to know students who did not need coddling. No favouritism.
We were all along for the ride. “Alan, those are street kids…you are going to have
trouble…cancel the trip.” Street kids were the best kids to take on a trip. They knew
how to avoid trouble. You would have loved that trip.
In your OCE classes way back in 1963 there was no one in the room
that you did not notice. A collective. No favouritism. All were tied up in one bundle.
I loved that. Sucking around was never something I liked doing.
I wanted my teachers to be above favouritism even if they had favourites.
Some of the students i taught so many years ago still call me “Sir”
and have difficulty calling me “Alan” which to me means there was respect
for the distance between teachers and students. And no favoritism even
if I had favoriites like Conrad Blonski whose mother was barely holding
on…living below the poverty line as a “carnie” with a popgun booth
at local carnivals. “Where do you sleep, Conrad?” “On the floor beneath
the popguns.” he said without feeling sorry for himself. Who could not love
such a kid.? He loved me. Sounds so vain to say that. How do I know? Because he punched me
on the shoulder often with a “:good morning, sir” The happiest times of his
life were his student days at Parkdale. Sad to say that. Good teachers
have that skill. You did. I tried to emulate. No sucking around. Respect.
Rather long “Happy Birthday”, John. But it could be one hell of s lot longer.
alan skeoch
(we have known each other
for 63 years…I now call you John
but called you ’sir’ for many years.)
“You know something kids? Our prime minister, Pierre Trudeau, is not particularly interested
in what teachers have to say…but he is very interested in what you have to say.”
“So what, sir?”
“So, I bet five dollars, that if you sent him an invitation to speak at Parkdale, he would come.
If I sent that letter, it would be ignored.”
“Go away, sir.”
“Write the letter.”
And so my Grade Ten class wrote the letter and sure as god made little green apples,
we had a visit from our Prime Minister.
Now why should I tell you this, John, on your 99th birthday? Because you had that
ability to make young people feel important…feel wanted…feel their opinions and actions
mattered. I tried to do the same.
“Guess what the first thing he said when he arrived?”
“No idea, sir.”
“Where’s the washroom?”
“Sir, why did he come to Parkdale?”
“By election may have had something to do with it.”
Parkdale Collegiate History Department, big wheels…in their own minds anyway.
Made to feel so by Parkdale students.
CONCUSION
Below are two pictures of a Penny Archade Carnival sideshow.
It’s time for you to guess why I have chosen to put these
two pictures into your birthday card, John. Abstract reasoning is
a skill where two seemingly meaningless events are made sensible.
Meaning? Let me guess.
1) Big events are part of life.
2) The ability to laugh is a treasure.
3) Men may not lead as well as women
4) Put a nickel in the life machine and see where it leads.
5) Life is a sideshow, keep that in mind.
6) Do not take yourself too seriously
7) History is full of bumps and grinds.
8) Making a living is not easy
9) What’s the big idea today, sir?
10) Sex appeal drives us on.
11) No meaning whatever, only the big man at the
carnival has a striking resemblance to John Ricker…compare
the pictures…just for the hell of it. Do I need to Apologise? yes.
alan skeoch
april 2022
